Tag: Books

Updates

October 2011 Update

Geoff W

When I started these monthly updates a few months ago I told myself I would try to get them posted by the end of the first full week in a month. That clearly isn’t going to be the case. I’ve truly struggled this past month reading wise. I’ve spent almost 20 days reading the same novel/memoir and I’ve spent a lot of time playing Minecraft (check it out if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

I’m not sure if Waiting for Snow in Havana just wasn’t what I wanted to read now, or if Eire said something to really irk me while reading the novel, but it has been a struggle to finish. I did finish it and will have the review up tomorrow. I’m glad to report The Namesake is such a beautifully written and simple book that I’m flying through it and will probably have a review for next week, as well as my annual review of the Boston Book Festival!

I’m very excited for the Festival this weekend – I just ordered the original book festival poster from 2009. I wanted one and a bag from the first year but couldn’t afford it as I was still a VISTA. I was able to get a poster, but the bags sold out this time last year. I’ve already sorted out the workshops I’m going to and am only letting myself take $40 to spend on books (aka one grab bag if the same vendor is there this year, and a random book to get signed if I’m inspired by a panel). It’s dangerous that it falls on payday weekend.

And as no blog post is complete without pictures, check out the library and light house I’ve built in Minecraft. (It’s the local public library – as no town is complete without one!) I’m working on a University sized library on a hidden island elsewhere in my world and I’ll post pictures of it when it’s completed!

Updates

September 2011 Update

Geoff W

I have no idea where August, went, but we are entering the second week of September and I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer. Although I love fall, and winter is my all time favorite season, there’s just something sad about saying goodbye to summer. Perhaps this is a remainder of the many years I spent working at summer camps, or the time I now get to spend on an island during the summer, but it’s just sad to see it go. But on with the update!

On the blog front, I’ve started making a few minor changes. I’ve finally completed the About Me section with a section about Me and a section about The Oddness of Moving Things. I also purchased a domain (my first!) so if you visit the blog it’s now geoffwhaley.com instead of geoffwhaley.com! And if you actually read the blog on the site rather than a reader or subscription you’ll notice when I’ve finished a book because of the currently reading section at the top of the right column (thanks to Rob at 101 Books for having the idea first).

Over the past few weeks I’d made a real dent in reading the books I’ve collected over the past two years, but have now completely nullified that progress by stockpiling books for the upcoming fall/winter from various sources. Check them out below, neatly categorized into three sections, and the very last thing is an update on the cool Goodreads graphic found last month.
Click here to continue reading.

Updates

Lunch Break Interlude

Geoff W

Today has not been the most productive of days. I’ve gotten a decent amount of work done in the office, but I’m just not motivated. In hopes of motivating myself I thought I’d take a few minutes to share a neat photo found online and my two newest book additions and neat finds on my random Tuesday off this week.

I randomly stumbled across this rather ingenious photo on a 404 missing page at Scribd. It really does sum up what I feel like when I’m trying to find my next book to read unless something serendipitously comes along and suggests what I should read next. For example, I am currently reading Madame Bovary as I missed a trivia question about the story and then realized French literature is woefully lacking in my life (I believe I’ve only ever read Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo and that was in High School)!

The second photo I took of the random things I bought while driving my sister up to Keene, NH for grad school (so it wasn’t that random, but of all days to take off in a week Tuesday really turned me around). There was a Borders still open so I went in to see if the sales were any better than those Boston had when they closed all our stores. The sales were minutely better (but the staff if-possible even more rude) and I splurged and bought a copy of The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen, which I’ve read before and heard him speak and loved it (and him), and a combined A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for $11.00 total (saving like $36.00 or so. I also went to Target and bought some deodorant (I wouldn’t share this generally, but it was a double pack for $3.99 and a regular stick is $4.56 on its own!) and two neat Moleskine notebooks for $3 and a Green whiteboard/corkboard for my cubicle for $5.00.

And a final picture of my lovely corkboard hanging up in the office:

Also, last week I got my copies of The English Patient, Waiting for Snow in Havana, and Fun Home in preparation for the Boston Book Festival! I’m very excited to re-read Fun Home and even more excited to finally read the first two which have been on my book list for over three years!

Books

Book 54: The Professor and the Madman – Simon Winchester

Geoff W

The Professor and the Madman - Simon WinchesterThe complete title of this work is The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary and it fully lives up to this title. It is the history of Professor James Murray (the Professor) and Dr. W.C. Minor (the Madman) and their serendipitously linked lives through one of the greatest feats of the English-speaking world.

It’s a fascinating combination of historical novel about the Oxford English Dictionary and Biography of its longest editors (Murray) and greatest contributors (Minor). If there’s one major critique I have is that it often felt like the author purposefully used a ridiculous synonyms when a simple word would suffice. However, with his obsession for lexicography and the OED in particular, it’s not too surprising.

Click here for the recommendation, quotes and the rest of the review.

Random

I got a Kindle!!!

Geoff W

As you may have guessed from my fairly obvious title, I got a Kindle.  I’m sure it had something to do with my blog post (July Update) including Tom’s cameo (among other things) or Tom’s rekindled, notice I didn’t say new, appreciation for books.  He gave me a gift certificate to Amazon for 2/3 of the kindle because I didn’t want him to pay for all of it.  It was a bit of a decision because I could have gotten 20-25 used books easily, but I really did want a Kindle so I bought it.

It arrived last Saturday and I immediately uploaded 25 books, three I paid for including The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, and the rest were pre-1923.  I realized pretty quickly that the books are pretty expensive (compared to used) and I will purchase books, but I can’t wait until the public library starts loaning Kindle e-books.

Everything was going great until Monday morning on the way to work. Less than 48 hours of owning it I gave myself a mini-heart attack by dropping it in a parking lot. If you know me, this isn’t too surprising, but I was petrified and swore at myself for not just shelling out the money to purchase a cover when I got it.  The back casing partially popped open and there is now a lovely scrape (smaller than a dime) on the back left corner, but thankfully it still worked/s.  This scare necessitated my lovely blue case to the left. It doesn’t photograph very well and Amazon doesn’t show the color very well, but it’s a nice blue, maybe a bit lavender-ish depending on the light.  I splurged and got the one with the light because after the mini-heart attack I needed something special.

I’ve had it for nearly a week and so far the pros definitely outweigh the cons.  It responds significantly faster than  my Sony Pocket e-Reader which isn’t that shocking considering this is the third generation Kindle and I have a first generation Sony.  The formatting of the novels is great, but I wish rather than it automatically starting you on the first page with text, it would start you on the cover page.  I absolutely LOVE the notes feature, although you can (and I did) go overboard as you’ll see in the quotes section of my next post.

The two biggest negatives are the side navigation buttons (personal preference) and the lack of page numbers.  The navigation bothers me because for some reason I’m convinced the left should be backward and the right forward, but both sides have a large forward and a small backwards button.  The lack of page numbers really bothers me, especially as I like to see how many pages to the next chapter.  You can check the page numbers, but you have to pull up the menu screen and hope that the publisher included them.  I’m sure I will get used to both the navigation and the page numbers as everything else works seamlessly.